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From: Michael Will
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 21:36:19 -0700
Subject: Re: REQ: Diatonic Slide Info

Pete Brunelli wrote:
>
> Allo,
> About 10 years ago I had a "Koch" Chromatic. A "friend" borrowed it, and it
> vanished. Obviously he has magical powers beyond my ability to imagine! It
> was a really cool harp and I liked playing it, but didn't really know how it
> fit into the Harmonica family. Now i think that i would like to get
> another, or a "Slide Harp". Any info or warnings on these?

I have heard several times that the Slide Harp is more airtight than the
Koch because it has windwavers. Mine is playable, though not nearly as
nice as a diatonic. I found it to be not very useful. You can't really
play chromatic, and having two mismatched diatonic keys (C and Db) in
your hand doesn't help you play the blues much..

Just yesterday I modified my Slide Harp's tuning. Here it is

Hole: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
change 0 -1 0 -1 0 -1 0 0 +1 0 1/2 step difference from normal
tuning
Draw+ Eb G C D F# A C Eb G Bb
Draw D G B D G A B D F A
Blow C E G C E G C E G C
Blow+ Eb F A C F Ab C F Ab Db
change -2 0 +1 -1 0 0 -1 0 0 0

Only 4 draw reed and 4 blow reed changes. What I get is a D7 chord on
the shift draw, which is the V chord in the key of G (2nd position),
which is missing on the diatonic. I also get the missing IV chord, F7,
on the shift blow, for the key of C (1st position). The readily
available flat 3 (Eb) also makes 1st position more usable (I hope).

Plus, there's some minor chords available too: Cm, and Fm; so I can play
minor blues in C, which uses chords Cm, Fm, and G.

The idea was, since you don't have real chromatic capability, and you
don't have the chromatic sound (wrong tuning), I might as well help out
the C diatonic. There were some other tunings I would have preferred,
but not with that few modifications of 1 half step (and 1 reed with a
whole step mod).

It works! Having the D7 chord is kinda nice.

FeatherMan Mike